Gamechanger? MOOCs for College Credit

In the readings last week, Carlo Salerno's (2012) assertions that elite universities would become adverse to MOOCs once the proletariat began achieving mass credentialing did not sit well with me.

Salerno states, "The fact that no school uses a lottery system to determine who gets in means that determining who gets in matters a great deal to these schools, because it helps them control quality and head off the adverse effects of unqualified students either dropping out or performing poorly in career positions. For individual institutions, obtaining high quality inputs works to optimize the school’s objective function, which is maximizing prestige.
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In this light, colleges have a strong incentive to protect, or control, the quality of the degrees that they confer because successful graduates directly affect the institution’s prestige and the public’s perceptions about the value of its products."

While I believe there are a number of issues that may make universities hesitant in allowing for course credit from MOOCs, I like to think (maybe naively) that institutions would not consider students in MOOCs who have pursued the coursework rigorously, and excelled, as potential diluters of the brand/image/prestige of the university.  That these students would somehow perform negatively in careers or reflect negatively upon the institution seems ludicrous to me.  These learners are likely to be extremely self motivated and I would imagine go on to be quite successful in their respective fields.  What struck me in this passage was that it seemed to be instead a thinly vieled argument for more class based exclusion at universities.  These MOOC students may not fit the background, color, demographics, etc, so let's keep them out.

In contrast to Salerno's assertations, I really want to be an optimist when it comes to credentialing through MOOCs.  As college continues to become more unaffordable for the average American, any opportunity for learning and receiving credit from a MOOC experience seems like an incredibly positive option for driven students who may not have the means to attend a traditional program.  The CS masters degree from Georgia Tech and Udacity seems to be the first foray of a nationally respected institution dipping its toe into the world of MOOCs for credit.  At a price of $7,000 it is nearly 90% less than the same program for an out of state student pursuing the degree on campus (Dodson, 2013). 

I am also interested to see what transpires with certain MOOCs being eligible for credit through ACE.  When reading about this, I wondered if our institution accepted ACE credit.  I did find out that ACE credit is accepted on a case by case basis, especially in the New College Life Track program.  It seems that MOOCs could easily fit in the overall scheme along with transfer credit, CLEP, AP, and other ACE prior learning. 

History of low number of students substantially using these other forms of credit, along with low completion rate of MOOCs seem to indicate that MOOCs may just become another rarely used credit option for learners, and not the disruption some predict.  The evolution of MOOCs into true degree programs such as the GA Tech offering, may change the landscape.  Only time will tell.

Show MOOCs the Money

As the potential impact of MOOCs looms on the higher education horizon, many of those unanswered questions surround the financial aspects of MOOCs.  First off, how can MOOCs continue operating as a free model?  MOOCs are costly to maintain, and major players in the MOOC arena such as Udacity and Coursera have $22 million and $16 million in funding from venture capital respectively (Holmes, 2013).  Venture capitalists aren’t involved with MOOCs as an altruistic venture.  They expect a return on their money.  Dellarocas and Van Alstyne (2013) present a number of possibilities for the profitability of MOOCs, including state subsidies, moving to a tuition model, paying for certifications from courses, selling data generated in courses, charging potential employers for recruiting services, and selling student referral data to higher education institutions.  I believe that a combination of these business models must emerge if the for profit companies driving many MOOCs are to stay afloat.  Personally, I wonder if these avenues will be enough to maintain MOOCs as a profitable enterprise, but that remains to be seen.  I am also generally concerned with the issue the transparency.  The public image of MOOCs as benevolent, knowledge dispursing entities greatly contrasts with the true nature of for profit enterprises in general.  Are learners aware that many MOOCs are in existence to make money?  In addition, have/will MOOCs be completely transparent about the possibility of using learners data for profit in a plethora of ways?

Another financial element surrounding the impact of MOOCs stems from the other end of the spectrum.  Will MOOCs influence the financial model of traditional higher education institutions? Clay Shirky (2013) details a higher education system which is already struggling with economic issues of keeping expenses below revenues, and students facing difficult decisions of sacrificing ever increasing expenses, in return for a bachelor’s degree with less net benefit than in the past.  In this environment, the advent of MOOCs is likely to affect small, less prestigious colleges already having difficulty keeping revenues and expenses in check.  Glassman (2013) citing a Moody’s Investor Service report, agrees.  Moody’s predicts that MOOCs will be a net positive for large schools with brand recognition, but will hurt smaller colleges who cannot compete against those course and faculty offerings.  While I am not sure that MOOCs will have a large effect on the overall higher education landscape, I do agree that online learning and nontraditional course offerings will.  Not staying abreast of these changes and opportunities will be extremely detrimental in today’s already shaky funding environment. 

Dellarocas, C., & Van Alstyne, M. (2013). Money models for MOOCs. Communications of the ACM, 56(8), 25-28.

Grossman, S. (2013). Moody’s Says MOOCs Could Raise a University’s Credit Rating [Blog Post] The Chronicle of Higher Education College, Wired Campus.  Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/blogs/wiredcampus/moodys-says-moocs-could-boost-a-universitys-credit-rating/44519

Holmes, D. (2013) How Will the MOOCs Make Money? Retrieved from http://pandodaily.com/2013/08/22/infographic-how-will-the-moocs-make-money/

Shirky, C. (2013). MOOCs and Economic Reality [Blog Post] The Chronicle of Higher Education College, The Conversation.  Retrieved from http://chronicle.com/blogs/conversation/2013/07/08/moocs-and-economic-reality/

MOOCs and Related Kerfuffle

First off, I have to admit I was completely averse to using the word disruption in my title, so I chose the most colorful synonym in the list.  I'm going to try to incorporate kerfuffle into my daily speech now.

Disruption is certainly the word du jour in the current higher education landscape and MOOCs are right in the middle of the discussion.  When I think of disruptive innovation, technologies come to mind that transformed an industry, completely replacing what had been there before.  While I believe there is potential for MOOCs to contribute to a change from the current higher education system we have today, I expect them to be only a small force in overall changes.  When I think of true "disruption" I think more along the lines of Wikipedia and Encylopedia Britannica, which ended print production in 2012. 

However, I also feel that MOOCs are so new, talk of major disruption may be valid, as it appears no one really has a handle on just what will be of the whole MOOC phenomenon yet.  Stewart (2013) appears to share this sentiment in a post-year of the MOOC article detailing the evolution of the MOOC discussion and MOOCs in general during the recent past.  Because no one knows exactly what MOOCs are and will be, even discussing them is difficult.  I love how the saying, wherever you go, there you are, is sprinkled in several places.  We are truly in the middle of a MOOC journey, and there are a lot of talking head pundit types making various preditions.  Peter J. Stokes, quoted in Carlson & Blumenstyk (2012) likens what is transpiring with MOOCs to people throwing spaghetti to a wall and seeing what sticks.  Will MOOCs be a game changer, or will they be along the lines of the radio broadcasts of early last century?  Right now I think it is still anyone's guess!

References

Stewart, B. (2013). the MOOC is dead, long live the MOOC. Retrieved from http://theory.cribchronicles.com/2013/01/04/the-mooc-is-dead-long-live-the-mooc/

Carlson, S., & Blumenstyk, G. (2012). For whom is college being reinvented?. The Chronicle of Higher Education.

Battle Lines Drawn? cMOOCs and xMOOCs

In MOOCs’ relatively short five year history, two distinct types of MOOCs have developed, cMOOCs and xMOOCs.  While both types of MOOCs adhere to the concept of a massive open online course, the pedagogy and learning theory driving the course create a completely different learner experience.  George Seimens (2012), one of the developers of the connectivist theory from which the c in cMOOCs is derived, illustrates the core of this difference in the statement, “cMOOCs focus on knowledge creation and generation whereas xMOOCs focus on knowledge duplication.”

xMOOCs are the courses that have been getting much media buzz, including those offered from Coursera, Udacity, and EDx.  These courses are adapted from traditional college courses, relying on methods such as video lectures, quizzes, and tests to gauge learning (Siemens, 2012).  They are often taught by leaders in a field, and contained within a learning management system.  This format, with lack of collaboration and integration among students with one another and instructors, begets the overarching criticism of these courses, (Siemens, 2012;  Morris, 2012).  In contrast to the portrayal of xMOOCs as “drill and grill” instruction, Coursera co-founder Daphne Koller (2012), details a number of innovations in online learning actively being used at Coursera, including interactive videos which require learner participation, study groups, peer grading, and learner collaboration in a message board where questions were answered and help provided nearly any hour of the day due to the worldwide student base. 

While xMOOCs may be making strides in areas of collaboration, it is the underlying theory of learning that fundamentally separates them from cMOOCs.  The cMOOC model springs from the ideas of connectivism, that learning happens through connections.  They emphasize “creation, creativity, autonomy, and social networked learning,” (Siemens, 2012).  In these courses, there is much less of a power differential between instructor and learner, focusing on co-learning instead.  The learners engage with one another, often in real time through various social media.  The courses are not self contained within an LMS.  The concept of a cMOOC is brought to life in this video, albeit a little hard to understand, Visualizing a cMOOC.

 

While I am only beginning to participate in an xMOOC, I am intrigued by the concept of the cMOOC and the completely different approach to learning.  In the future I would like to explore a cMOOC course to compare and contrast the styles.  So far, two weeks into my Coursera course, I am finding the format of short videos and quizzes to be both interesting (where I have made enough meaning from my new knowledge to chatter about ideas to coworkers), and conducive to my schedule.  The “c” in the cMOOC actually scares me a little!  I have made one post on the Coursera message board and been inundated with updates and emails.  I’m not sure I am prepared to collaborate in real time with thousands of people.

References

Morris, S. M. (2012). Broadcast Education: A response to Coursera. Open Education. Retrieved from http://www.hybridpedagogy.com/Journal/files/Broadcast_Education.html

Siemens, G. (2012). MOOCs are really a platform. Retrieved from http://www.elearnspace.org/blog/2012/07/25/moocs-are-really-a-platform/

Koller, D. (2012, June). Daphne Koller: What we're learning from online education [Video file]. Retrieved from http://www.ted.com/talks/daphne_koller_what_we_re_learning_from_online_education.html